The White Sox had a chance to seal their first sweep of the season. Jordan Leasure had a chance to become the first White Sox reliever to record a second save in 2025.
Alas, both opportunities went by the boards during an ugly ninth inning. Leasure made his own trouble, the White Sox defense added to it, and Adolís García struck the decisive blow with a two-run double to salvage what could've been a humiliating weekend for the Rangers.
"To be honest -- and I think it's a good thing -- everybody's pissed," said starter Davis Martin. "I think that's a big sign: we're not happy with two out of three. We feel like we left that game there to win, and I think that's a sign of growth and I think that's a sign of a turning point with this team."
Leasure plunked Josh Jung with an 0-2 fastball to start the ninth, which was an ill-advised way to embark on protecting a one-run lead, and the first of a few signature White Sox mistakes over the game's final six outs.
Leasure compounded his own problems by dangling a 1-1 slider to Jake Burger, who roped it down the line to put runners on second and third with nobody out. He found footing by striking out Alejandro Osuna, after which Kyle Higashioka hit a grounder to the left side with the contact play on.
Miguel Vargas was able to stop it with a dive, and had he been able to transfer the ball cleanly to his bare hand, he would've had a straightforward out at the plate. He instead fumbled the transfer, but he still had time to get the catcher running to first, which would at least record a second out with the game now tied at 3.
"When I was trying to throw, I didn’t have a good grip so I don’t want to throw bad," Vargas said. "That’s why I went to first to make sure we got an out. But we don’t get any."
What he didn't envision was that his throw would be caught by a first baseman who wasn't standing on first base, but that's Lenyn Sosa's ingenuity at work. Sosa appeared to be transfixed by Vargas' double-clutching and never went to first over the course of the play. When the ball got to him, his foot was squarely on the infield dirt, a couple feet from where it should've been.
"Just kind of lost his place out there," said Will Venable. "He's got to get to the bag. We've got to record an out there. Obviously Vargas didn't get a clean handle on the ball to go home. At that point, Lenyn's got to get on first base."
Leasure then left another 1-1 slider thigh-high over the plate to García. While Sosa's error wasn't the reason why Leasure lost the lead, it did generate an insurance run for Texas when Higashioka scored all the way from first, and that loomed large in the bottom of the inning.
With the Sox now trailing 5-3, Edgar Quero greeted Robert Garcia with a double into the right-field corner, and after Sosa struck out on a sweeper that almost hit him, Michael A. Taylor chopped the ball over a leaping Jung at third. Quero scored, and Taylor hustled into second with a double.
The excitement was dashed immediately, because Garcia caught Taylor trying to get a big jump off second, and although Taylor got three throws out of a rundown, he wasn't able to create the mistake to save him. That left ninth-hitting Vinny Capra in position to do it all himself with the bases empty and two outs, and he flied out to the left-field warning track to end the game.
"If I make it to third right there, we're probably not having this conversation, but since I was out, it looks like a terrible play; that's the risk in running," Taylor said. "I had a green light, and I was sitting on one look right there, and I got it. I wasn't expecting inside move. It's just a well-timed inside move by them. Looking to be aggressive with one out, trying to get to third and give us an opportunity for a sac fly, passed ball, something like that."
An otherwise encouraging homestand ended on a sour note, because the White Sox played the kind of baseball they needed to play over the first eight innings.
Davis Martin threw six innings of two-run ball, containing his struggles to the second inning. Just like Leasure seven innings later, he opened by putting Jung on first before hanging a slider to Burger. Two differences -- it was a walk instead of an HBP, and Burger homered instead of doubling. Some 423 feet to left center later, the Rangers led 2-0. Martin then walked Alejandro Osuna, after a flyout, Edgar Quero cut him down at second on a SHOTHO, and Martin avoided damage the rest of the way.
On a different day, perhaps Martin doesn't endure for a quality start. He only struck out two, the 10 whiffs on 100 pitches is a pretty underwhelming rate, and he gave up his share of hard-hit balls. On this day, they found the White Sox defense, and so he lowered his ERA to 3.45 on the season.
By the time the White Sox bullpen got involved, the White Sox offense had put him in line for the win.
"I blew a game in 2022, and Liam Hendriks was the first one to come up to me and say, 'Hey man, there's a new game tomorrow,'" Martin said. "It was a great talking point in my career. I go out in a leverage situation in the eighth inning that I've never been in before, screw it up, and he's the first one to be there. Guys know. There's times I'm going to have a bad game, and somebody's going to pick me up. It's the state of the game. Jordan's going to be in that spot again, and he's going to be successful."
They started slowly against Patrick Corbin, but one swing by Miguel Vargas put the White Sox on the board. He got enough of a 3-2 slider to put it in the White Sox bullpen, cutting Texas' lead to 2-1.
The White Sox then failed to convert on a golden opportunity in the fifth. They had runners on the corners and nobody out after a Quero double and a Sosa single, but Taylor struck out, and Burger read Capra's attempt at a squeeze and charged it in time to cut Quero down at the plate. Chase Meidroth then scooped a fly ball to left, but while Osuna was playing surprisingly deep in left field, he was able to close the distance with a diving catch to preserve the Rangers' lead.
"I think that's a really good spot with Vinny there to push a run across," Venable said of the squeeze attempt. "We're going to have to find different ways to score and at that point, we thought that was a good idea to give it a shot."
But it didn't survive another batter. When the sixth inning rolled around, Slater socked a high slider out to left to tie the game, and Vargas kept the Sox rolling with a double. Andrew Benintendi's groundout served the purpose of getting Vargas to third, and although Bruce Bochy went to Luke Jackson, Luis Robert Jr. still came through with a sac fly to put the Sox ahead 3-2. That margin almost held.
Bullet points:
*Leasure is now 1-for-4 in save opportunities, and all three of his blown saves have come in the final inning.
*Capra had to hit for himself in the ninth because Will Venable stacked his lineup with righties against the left-handed Corbin, leaving him only lefties on the bench against the left-handed García.
*Meidroth was on deck to end the game, but he had extended his hitting streak to 12 games in his previous plate appearance, so at least that wasn't a victim of Taylor's TOOTBLAN.
*Quero ended a cold snap with his third three-hit game of his career, and his first hits since the Crosstown series.
